nark

• (UK) enPR: näk, IPA^(key): /nɑːk/
• (US) enPR: närk, IPA^(key): /nɑːɹk/

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)k

From Romani nak (“nose”).

• narc

nark (plural narks)

1. (Britain, slang) A police spy or informer.
   • 1879 October, J[ohn] W[illiam] Horsley, “Autobiography of a Thief in Thieves’ Language”, in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XL, number 240, London: Macmillan and Co. […], OCLC 1005958675, page 505, column 1:

     So I went and laid down on the grass. While laying there I piped a reeler whom I knew. He had a nark (a policeman's spy) with him. So I went and looked about for my two pals, and told them to look out for F. and his nark.

   • 1912, George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion, Act I,

     It’s a—well, it’s a copper’s nark, as you might say. What else would you call it? A sort of informer.

2. (Australia, slang) An unpleasant person, especially one who makes things difficult for others; a spoilsport.

• (police spy): see informant
• (unpleasant person): see jerk or git

• (police spy): copper's nark

nark (third-person singular simple present narks, present participle narking, simple past and past participle narked)

1. (transitive, thieves' cant) To watch; to observe.
2. (intransitive, slang) To serve or behave as a spy or informer.
3. (transitive, slang) To annoy or irritate.

   It really narks me when people smoke in restaurants.

4. (intransitive, slang) To complain.

   He narks in my ear all day, moaning about his problems.

5. (transitive, slang, often imperative) To stop.

   Nark it! I hear someone coming!

• (inform on): rat out, tattle, see rat out

• (watch): nark it (“look out”)
• (inform on): narking dues

See narc.

nark (plural narks)

1. Alternative form of narc (narcotics officer).

• “nark” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.

• ARNK, Karn, karn, knar, kran, rank